PARTICIPATION
Gallery Show, April 27 – June 1, 2024:
The Urinal Cathara (2008)
The Urinal Cathara is an artifact from SoundWok: Mapping the Aesthetic Consciousness and the Dynamic Social Networks of Southern California and SoCal-Linked Upstream Sonifiers Using GIS Technology (2008)
Through the performative exploration of research as an aesthetic category and data as medium, SoundWok was an ‘eventstructure’ in which the development of structure over time, rather than the existence of structure within space, was emphasized. Outcomes included a research report delivered to the NGA (National Geo-Spatial Agency) on 9/14/08, and an opera delivered on 9/20/08 as part of a sound installation interpreted by sonifiers, a videographer, and a “voise” (voice + noise) artist.
The Urinal Cathara was created in 2003 by Scott Vance for the production of the popera electronica Ego (MLuM). Based upon Duchamp’s Fountain, it consists of an American Standard vessel upon which are attached seven strings. The strings are tuned in an ascending pattern from the lowest pitch in the middle to the highest pitches on the outside. This is similar to the African mbira (thumb piano). The strings flare outwardly from the top to accommodate a variety of playing techniques. The Cathara is sounded by plucking, strumming, brushing, sliding, exciting with an outside magnetic field (e-bowing), or through good old-fashion feedback with the use of electronically resonant circuitry (honeytoning). The whammy bar was added for additional expressive possibilities.
With an intercultural and inter-media aesthetic and praxis that can be described as “Weltradau” (World Noise), MLuM takes and makes the “best” out of the “worst” (and vice versa) that various music(s), images, performance practices, and sounds have to offer. Organic and inorganic processes, gong-chime cultures, ethnoise, and sound mauls are among its inspirations and references.
MLuM are:
Marco Schindelmann
Scott Vance (b.1954) received his BM and MM degrees from the University of Redlands where he studied clarinet with Phillip Rehfeldt and composition with Barney Childs. He was a member of the Redlands New Music Ensemble for over four decades including as soloist for the recording of “Concerto” by Phillip Crumb on Opus 1 Records. He worked as Instructor of Music Technology at California State University San Bernardino and has played in the Redlands Symphony, San Bernardino Symphony, and Riverside Philharmonic Orchestras. He has developed several electro-acoustic instruments and delivered a paper at the International Computer Music Conference in New York describing Optrix, a synthesizer played by pointing to interactive graphics on a computer screen. Also, he is a free-lance engineer/mastering engineer with credits on such labels as CRI, Advance, New World, and Rastascan Records.